Carlos Correa's lack of effort on final play Thursday night was hypocritical

Correa jogged down to first base just days after questioning some of his teammates' effort.

Sep 25, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa (4) looks on during a replay against the Miami Marlins in the fifth inning at Target Field. | Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

If you're going to indirectly call out some of your teammates for not playing with a sense of urgency, you better play with a sense of urgency yourself. Carlos Correa jogging down to first base on the final play of Thursday night's atrocious 13-inning Twins loss to the Marlins was a very poor look for a player who is supposed to be the leader of the clubhouse.

Just a couple days ago, Correa said "some guys" on the Twins were sensing the moment and putting in extra work, implying that others weren't. So for him to give minimal effort on his game-ending groundout — on a play where he would've been safe if he had run hard, due to a poor throw from the Marlins' pitcher — was hypocritical and disappointing from the established veteran star.

Correa busting it down to first with their season on the line. pic.twitter.com/H4tvxo9g78

— Jed 🇬🇧 (@TigersJUK) September 27, 2024

Correa reaching safely probably wouldn't have been enough to spark a Twins rally with two outs, but who knows? What if Trevor Larnach came up afterwards and hit a two-run homer to tie the game? It's more about the principle. That loss, which was disastrous and preventable in so many ways, effectively ended the Twins' season. In that situation, even four-plus hours into the game, there's no excuse for not running hard out of the box and making the pitcher make a good throw over to first.

To be clear, Correa is at the bottom of the list when it comes to assigning blame for the Twins' unbelievable six-week collapse that will see them mathematically eliminated from the playoffs this weekend. He's been their best player all year, leading the team in batting average and OPS and WAR across 85 games. If he hadn't missed two months with plantar fasciitis, the Twins probably make the postseason. Even on Thursday night, Correa went 3 for 5 with a home run and 2 walks. Unlike Royce Lewis and others, he wasn't the problem.

But again, you can't take a vague shot at other players on the team for not working hard enough and then jog to first base with the season hanging in the balance. That just can't be acceptable. It was a fitting cap to a hideous loss and an appalling collapse by a team that has to look itself in the mirror this offseason and figure out what went wrong.